A four hour window into the storm of abuse “Feminazi Lawyer” Charlotte Proudman faces on Twitter

Just a few hours of Charlotte Proudman’s Twitter mentions demonstrate that the penalty for calling out what you see as sexist behaviour is to be subjected to a barrage of sexist behaviour.

If you are reading this article then you almost certainly already know the story of the woman who called out a man for what she saw as sexist behaviour on LinkedIn, and then found herself being called a Feminazi on the front page of a national newspaper in the UK.

Twice.

And if you are reading this I’m also sure you’ll already have some pretty strong opinions about the rights and wrongs of the case.

So I’ll leave that for other writers.

Instead, I want to simply look at the series of tweets that were directed at Charlotte Proudman over a period of roughly four hours yesterday afternoon and evening. During that time she was getting over one @-message a minute, and they don’t make for an edifying read.

Total strangers queued up to call Ms Proudman “rabid”, “humourless”, “a complete jerk” (twice), “a terrible person”, “a snob”, a “po-faced pedant” and “an embarassment.”

She’s “dumb”, “a blockhead”, “whiny”, a “disgrace”, “malicious”, a “joke”, a “liberal bigot” and “a fucking bowl-headed moron.”

A “twat.”

A “slag.”

“Bat shit insane.”

A “bitch.” (four times)

A “cunt.” (twice)

And a “left wing cunt” ruining the country at that.

The tweets sent fall into several traditional categories of attacking women

Scanning through the 300+ tweets Charlotte was sent between 4:11 PM and 7:58 PM reveals practically all the tropes you’d expect aimed at belittling a woman.

There’s the condescending language — Charlotte is addressed with variations of “silly girl / little lady / silly bint / poor thing / doll” 9 times.

16 times she is called “attention seeking.”

25 of the tweets are further unsolicited comments about her appearance, the behaviour which sparked the row — over half of which can be summed up as “I’ve seen more attractive women.”

“Get over yourself love. You’re no oil painting, he was being overly generous. Plain Jane and stuck up.” — @Snpchtbtchz

She’s called an “ugly ball-busting bitch” and a “munter.”

There were nine photomemes directed at her, a couple of which had been photoshopped to feature her face. And this one which adapted her Twitter account header photo to drag in the obligatory reference to a woman’s place in the kitchen.

Strangers have told her that she “should be working on a pole not in the courts.”

They’ve said that she’ll soon be “over the hill” or “a post wall, dusty cunt, wrinkled prune and no one will give a fuck.”

They’ve asked her if she dyes her pubic hair.

And there’s all the variations of the “get” verb.

Ms Proudman should, according to the people messaging her, “get a grip”, “get real”, “get a life”, “get over yourself”, “get off your high horse”, “get some counselling”. She should “get your head out of your arse” while she also has “got an enormous stick up your arse.”

She’s “got serious daddy issues” apparently.

And, inevitably, at one point, a person with a Charlie Hebdo cartoon of Muhammad as their avatar got in touch with her trying to make it all about Islam. No, me either.

And the tweets keep rolling in.

Overnight — since looking at the tweets I’ve already studied — she’s been told “I’d like to fuck U with consent.”

Yesterday, outside of the sample of tweets I used, she was told “Kill yourself you fucking idiot.”

Always classy to send messages like that on World Suicide Prevention Day.

It’s not all abuse though.

Of the 300+ tweets I read last night, over 70 were supportive of Charlotte Proudman and her actions. That’s a pretty high ratio considering it is so obvious the kind of tweets you are likely to attract yourself if you stand up in public and praise her.

There’s an internet law promulgated by Helen Lewis that “Comments on any article about feminism justify feminism.”

It’s pretty clear that we need to update it for the Twitter era — any public accusation of sexism on the internet will generate a sexist response.